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BBC News Item 20
Section 2 · medium · Sentence 1/9
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1.
Robots play a vital role in industries such as automobile manufacturing wherethere is about one robot for every 10 workers.
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The fact is that we have a long way to gobefore real robots catch up with their sciencefiction counterparts.
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One reason is that it has been much harder than expected to enable computers and robots to sense their surrounding environment and to react quickly and accurately.
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It has proved extremely difficult to give robots the capabilities that humans take for granted.
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Another barrier tothe development of robots has been the high cost of hardware
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such as sensors that enable a robot to determine the distance to an object as well as motors and servos that allow the robot to manipulate an object with both strength and delicacy.
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But prices aredropping fast.
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Laser range finders that are used in robotics to measure distance withprecision cost about $ 10,000 a few years ago; today they can be purchased for about$ 2,000.
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And new, more accurate sensors based on ultra-wideband radar are availabletor even less.
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